Interesting…I’ve always found this song to be quite relaxing and almost meditative, with the rainfall and Manzerek’s tinkling keyboards.
As far as tone is concerned - if anything - I’d consider it way more melancholy than spooky, hence “like a dog without a bone or an actor out on loan”…
what - did the lightning make ya jump?
How about that weird “I I E I E” sound at the beginning of Depeche Mode’s “Blasphemous Rumours”?
The Beatles’s “Blue Jay Way” always spooked me as a kid, both for the music and the lyrics, which begin
There’s a fog upon L.A.
And my friends have lost their way
We’ll be over soon they said
Now they’ve lost themselves instead.
Please don’t be long
Please don’t you be very long
Please don’t be long
For I may be asleep…
Yup, it’s very creepy.
Played in reverse, the voice is saying: “The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back…turn back…turn back…”
I specifically came here to mention “Where the Wild Roses Grow” from that album, with the whispering by Kylie Minogue.
Beautifully haunting; hauntingly beautiful.
“Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge”…supported by an eerie string arrangement mildly reminiscent of the Psycho shower scene. It’s even creepier when you listen closely to all the lyrics…
Also Gloomy Sunday, recorded by the great Billie Holiday (must have popped into my head because of the name Billie).
Little white flowers
Will never awaken you
Not where the black coach
Of sorrow has taken you
I remember reading somewhere years ago that hearing the song induced suicidal feelings in some people. I imagine that must be an urban legend, but it does somehow enhance faint feelings of horror.
(Heartbeat)
“There is no dark side of the moon, really. . . .
. . . . matter of fact, it’s all dark.”
(Heartbeat fades)
It’s a great album by a great group, but 10,000 Days by Tool has a few creepy parts. The bit in the middle where a nurse and Doctor are trying to identify and help an uncooperative patient.
Speaking of Billie Holiday - she didn’t like encores and would close her sets with “Strange Fruit”.
[quote=“smithsb, post:29, topic:776234”]
Speaking of Billie Holiday - she didn’t like encores and would close her sets with “Strange Fruit”.
[/QUOTE]A song which is back in the news again: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/03/politics/rebecca-ferguson-trump-inauguration/
I always thought Tony Joe White’s Polk Salad Annie was creepy, or at least atmospheric. Annie herself “made the alligators look tame”, her “mama was workin’ on the chain gang” and was a “wretched, spiteful, straight razor totin’ woman”. And of course Annie’ grandmother was a gator’s breakfast “gator got her granny…chomp…chomp chomp”.
I thought of another one, Tori Amos’ song “Wednesday” from the album Scarlett’s Walk. It’s an up-tempo song, which she sings kind of cheerily:
“Nothing here to fear
I’m just sitting around
Being foolish when
There is work to be done
Just a hang-up call
And the quiet breathing
Of our Persian we call
Cajun on a Wednesday”
Builds unease masterfully, I think.
Can anyone think of a scary/creepy song that had no actual INTENDED creepiness to it? I am drawing a blank.
Ozzy Osbourne’s “No More Tears” is about a stalker saying goodbye to the woman he killed and the rigor mortis set in.
So now that it’s over can’t we just say good-bye?
I’d like to move on and make the most of the night
Maybe a kiss before I leave you this way
Your lips are so cold I don’t know what else to say
How about “Joan Crawford” from Blue Öyster Cult’s 1981 album Fire of Unknown Origin:
I wish more songs from that album had made it into the movie Heavy Metal. To defend! This is the pact!
sidebar: much preferred Hagar’s Heavy Metal theme over BOC’s.
Speaking of the crazy Bouchard brothers, from their “Cultosaurus Erectus” lp, one of my favourite “bits” of theirs are the verses from Black Blade…maybe not literally spooky, but certainly dark…
I have this feeling that my luck is none too good
This sword here at my side don’t act the way it should
Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave
And it howls!!! It howls like HELLLLLL!!!
“Who are the Brain Police”; in the liner notes Zappa says he admits to being frightened the first time he heard it played in the studio.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called ‘gitche gumee’
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
Canadian Zombies walking out of a Lake Superior to attack Wisconsin? Thats some Creepy Assed Shit Right There…
Daryl, take starboard point; Grimes take port!
Dammit! Hurry Up with those Ammo Boxes!!!
More belts for the Saws…! Reload the Saws…!
I’ve never heard that particular Jim Stafford song before and can see why you thought that particular line was creepyAF, but the whole song comes across as creepy, like The Charlie Daniels Band’s “The Legend of Wooly Swamp.”
No offense, but really not within the OP’s guidelines, IMHO. However, if you appreciate that, you might want to give American Murder Song a listen.
As for me, the creepiest line was in Tanya Tucker’s Delta Dawn ("And did I hear you say he was ameetin’ you here today, To take you to his mansion in the sky.)
23rd Psalm not the Lord’s Prayer
Blue Jay Way was already mentioned, the vibe is just so weird.
Several other Beatles songs have the same, especially the White Album.
Piggies, Sexy Sady, Cry baby cry are pretty creepy to me. Weird creepy lyrics or to begin and the music matches it.
And then of course there is Revolution 9.
It’s obviously not even a real song but hey it’s on there. Half of the soundbytes are terrifying on their own. Mixed in together it becomes creepy freaky shit.
Obviously the White Album, or at least half of it, becomes eerie when you realize Charles Manson was inspired by it, finding approval for his crazy ideas in the most innocent words and things.